The sprawling campus that once housed Palm Valley School in Rancho Mirage is now for sale for $14 million, just months after the 74-year-old private school shut its doors for good and collapsed into bankruptcy. The listing covers 16 buildings and roughly 53 classrooms that once served students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, now sitting empty on land that two different sources describe with differing acreage figures.
Palm Valley School was founded in 1952 and had operated at its Da Vall Drive address in Rancho Mirage since 1992, according to Coachella Valley Independent. The school closed permanently in June, the outlet reported, bringing an abrupt end to what had been described as the only private, co-educational, nonreligious college-preparatory day school in the Coachella Valley. The campus is now being marketed as a bankruptcy federal court sale with no bank involved, according to a property listing for the site.
According to the New York Post, the asking price for the campus is $14 million. The listing describes a 36.63-acre institutional campus, while NBC Palm Springs had previously described the same property as a 34-acre campus — a discrepancy that remains unresolved between the two accounts.
What's Actually For Sale
The listing details a campus built for a full K-12 operation: 16 buildings with approximately 53 classrooms, a full-size gymnasium with a performance stage, and a black-box theater, per the same property listing. Athletic facilities on the grounds include fields for baseball, softball, football, soccer and lacrosse, giving a potential buyer an unusually complete turnkey educational property in the middle of the desert.
A Financial Collapse Years in the Making
The school's financial unraveling came down to a stark enrollment gap. Palm Valley had budgeted for 245 enrolled students for the 2026-27 academic year, saying increasing enrollment was its major focus to reduce further challenges, per Coachella Valley Independent. Instead, actual enrollment for that year landed at just 160 students, a shortfall that created a financial gap in excess of $3 million, according to KESQ.
The school's board had pointed to financial issues and declining enrollment after what it called a thorough assessment of the school's financial position, as reported by the Desert Sun. Just weeks before the closure, the picture had looked very different: the board announced on May 7 that a transformational gift had been pledged to guarantee the school's operations for the next school year and potentially years beyond that, the Independent reported. KESQ's reporting noted the school had been expected to stay open thanks to an anonymous donor — a plan that changed by early June.
Parents Scrambled to Save the School
Before that donor plan fell apart, the board had said $1.5 million was needed to keep the school open, and a parent-led fundraising group said it raised $410,000 toward that goal in less than a day, according to the same Coachella Valley outlet. Parents and supporters had said at the time that the school would continue relying on community support to secure its future long term, per a separate NBC Palm Springs report. That fundraising momentum ultimately wasn't enough to prevent the school's financial collapse weeks later.
The sudden shutdown left parents and staff reeling, the New York Post reported. Shaymi Ristaino, described by the outlet as a Palm Valley School teacher and parent, said she lost her job and did not get her daughter's enrollment fee back. She also said the board misrepresented the school's financial condition and its efforts to raise money, according to the Post's reporting.
The listing is handled by Jennifer Toyama of Berkshire Hathaway HomeService, according to the property listing. For now, the property stands as a stark reminder of how quickly a decades-old institution can unravel: a 74-year legacy reduced to a real estate listing, its ballfields and classrooms waiting for a buyer who might give the Rancho Mirage site a new purpose entirely.
